What should a CEO expect from his Website?

17 August 2017, mantran

Being the CEO of a B2B company, do you make time to keep tabs on your website?

Think of it – whether your prospect finds you through search, or is brought to the website through social media, or email marketing – finally it’s the website that has to convert the visitor into a lead. It’s the website that will leave a lasting impression.

So, the website definitely deserves a CEO’s attention! How do you know it’s working for you? What’s your website ROI? Here is a quick recap of qualitative and quantitative factors that count.

Your website should represent your brand completely and truly – This means the messaging should be right, the images and content should communicate the brand story.

It should address all the company’s audience groups – Prospects and customers, existing and future employees, investors, and not to forget the media.

Good quality content – It should provide adequate information on the company and its products / services. Time spent on a page or time on site, and number of pages visited, and conversion numbers tell you if the content on the site has relevant and useful information, and is well written.

It should compare well with competitors – How does your website checkout vis-a-vis other websites? Check it out yourself, or ask someone to give you a summary update.

You should know the ROI from your website – How many leads did you get, and what business did you get from those leads? And, if you like, what was the profit from that business?

On the cost side, what did you spend on your website? If you are a medium size B2B business, it is likely that you have a 50 to 80 page website. Your one time development and set up cost would be Rs. 5 lakhs + SEO at 2 lakhs per annum and maintenance of another 2 lakhs per annum.

So, the website ROI would be equal to Profit – cost/ cost

Hiring the best talent is definitely a goal – Is your website helping to get you good quality applications?

Search engine Optimization – A B2B company must be found online. If you have invested in SEO services, you should be getting traffic from your keywords that generate leads. Your page should be ranking in the Top 10 or have improved in ranking from before.

Connected to social media – Your website should be connected to your social media channels and you should be getting traffic from these channels.

Responsiveness – Your website should work on any device, especially mobile phones. (we mention this because even today 25% of the websites in the SMB category are not responsive and don’t work on the mobile.)

Are you blogging enough? One or two blogs a week is not a tough task for a mid-size company. Blogs help to establish you as a thought leader, or an expert, and build brand. When prospects research a topic, blogs are what show up in the search, bringing interested parties to your website.

What are key statistics for the CEO Dashboard?

You should look at a dashboard that shows key statistics measured by an Analytics program like Google Analytics – traffic, sessions or visitors, page views, time on site, sales leads generated, and source of leads. Response time to leads generated should be tracked through the CRM system. Conversion to business and number of candidates hired are derivative statistics, which can be tracked, but are not wholly dependent on website.

Having an optimized website is like opening a door and inviting potential customers into your business. So, don’t ignore your website, and let it work for your business.